China and Emerging Markets: Riding Wild Horses
One month ago, I discussed some major risks to a slight upturn in the global economic scenario for 2014. Among those risks, concerns with the growth slowdown and challenges with shadow banking in China...
View Article"Comprehensive Immigration Reform": The Dead End Debate
2014 chatter about "Immigration Reform" remains superficial. As Obama promised in his State of the Union address last week, yet again, that this will be the year that they finally pass new immigration...
View ArticleMemo to Allen West: Have a Coke and a Smile
This week former Congressman Allen West criticized a Coca-Cola ad that featured Americans singing "America the Beautiful" in multiple languages. Mr. West found it "disturbing" that the song switched...
View Article10 More Questions Bill O'Reilly Might've Asked the President
This might sound strange coming from me, but I actually like it when President Obama agrees to be interviewed by Fox News hosts like Bill O'Reilly. Not only is it good for democracy that the president...
View ArticleWelcome Back, Commissioner Carrion
The appointment of Gladys Carrion as the Commissioner for the Administration for Children's Services brought to the de Blasio team a person of exemplary competence, honesty and genuine administrative...
View ArticleAmerican Recounts Arrest in Egypt
Jeremy Hodge, a 25-year old-American from Los Angeles was, until a few weeks ago, working as a translator in Cairo. Everything changed on the evening of January 22, when Hodge and his roommates, Nizar...
View ArticleBuilding Bridges, Naming Names
Naming public buildings, roads, bridges and the like is probably more complicated and controversial than it ought to be. No matter what, politics and power play a role. And such is certainly the case...
View ArticleStates Power the Movement for New Family-friendly Standards
Why are opponents so concerned about local communities deciding what's best for the health and welfare of their residents? Because these naysayers, fueled by lobbyists and financing from mega...
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Trade Yes, But a Different Track
What does a global economy mean? And who does it serve? These are the questions we need to ask as the United States seeks to negotiate new trade deals with Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, as 12 Pacific...
View ArticleMy Conversation With USC Law Professor Edwin Smith: Is Edward Snowden a...
Tonight on PBS, University of Southern California law professor Edwin Smith is my guest. A foreign relations law expert, he weighs in on the fallout from the NSA leaks, U.S. surveillance and Edward...
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Part 2: Legislation, a Constitutional Amendment Opens Doors to Medical...
Part 2 of 2 Any closed door can be opened. Such is the case of medical marijuana and the State of Florida. Twenty states have legalized medical marijuana in the past few years, while the conservative...
View ArticlePolitics Over Freedom, Again
Only a few weeks ago college and university presidents were falling over themselves to be the loudest (if not among the first) to denounce the American Studies Association's academic boycott of Israel....
View ArticleHow Senator Vitter Lost His Food Fight
Last spring, Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana proposed an amendment to the farm bill so sure of passage you might call it the Big Easy. Senator Vitter's amendment would have banned food...
View ArticleFragile Progress in the Congo
Central Africa is on fire. In recent weeks, ethnic and political conflicts in South Sudan and the Central African Republic have left as many as 2,000 dead and driven hundreds of thousands from their...
View ArticleEgypt's Fateful Choice: Democracy or Authoritarianism?
Algeria descended into civil war when its military suppressed the country's democratically popular Islamists. Could the same happen in Egypt? Back in the days of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian elections were...
View ArticleWhy The New CBO Report Is Proof That Obamacare Can Actually Work
In the wake of a new Congressional Budget Office report indicating that more than two million Americans might work fewer hours or stop looking for work because they can get affordable health care...
View ArticleThe GOP's Phony Embrace of Immigration Reform
House speaker John Boehner pulled off quite a feat for the GOP House leaders. After month and months of either silence on or outright hostility toward even the hint of talk about immigration reform,...
View ArticleA Farm Bill at the Expense of the Poor
Two years after its deadline, a Farm Bill emerges from Congress headed to the President's desk. For months, the Agriculture Conferees struggled to compromise on the various elements of the farm bill...
View ArticleClosing the Book on Torture
John Rizzo's memoir, Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA, joins the ranks of other books by officials who had a hand in the U.S. government's illegal, ineffective, and...
View ArticleConsidering Henry Waxman: Despite Drawbacks, the Congressman and the Scene He...
In part of my mind, it seems like it was yesterday. The Watergate scandal had driven Richard Nixon from the White House and ushered in a young band of fresh-faced politicians who were going to do it...
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